Home Nursing Class in Canton

For some time I had felt that the nurses in training at the Canton Sanitarium and Hos­pital in China needed experience in teaching the principles of healthful living to their own people. These nurses would not always be working in a hospital, and when asked to go into homes, they would need to know how to teach the people a more healthful way of liv­ing. At one of the supervisors' meetings, this matter was discussed at length, and the super­visors were told of the plan which the Wash­ington Sanitarium and Hospital used in giving their senior nurses experience in teaching the home nursing course. There the student nurses are taught home nursing, and a topic from the textbook is assigned to each nurse, who works out a lesson plan and presents it to the class.

The supervisors liked the idea very much, but wondered what could be accomplished without textbooks. Two of the supervisors and I were asked to decide upon the subjects which should be taught in what we decided to call our "Home Health Course." The supervisors were to teach the students the lessons, and the students in turn were to teach a class of Chinese women. It was decided that I should be present at all the classes. Thus the Chinese nurses were to bear the responsibility of teaching, but I was to be there to give whatever help might be necessary.

It was my responsibility to decide who was to make up the class. After thinking the matter over, I called together the women who cleaned in the hospital and did the laundry work, and asked whether they would be interested in at­tending a class in which they might learn how to keep themselves in better health. They were eager to join such a class, and until it was started three months later, I was besieged with questions regarding when the class would begin. I made it clear that no certificates would be given and that after taking the course they could still not be nurses. The object of the course was to help them to keep their families and homes in a better condition. To this they agreed.

The two supervisors who helped choose the subjects for our course were Miss Edna Wong, an older girl who had considerable nursing ex­perience in a Chinese village, and Miss Pearl Lei, a younger nurse who had had a good deal of experience in obstetrical nursing. The home health course covered the following topics:

1. How to Keep Our Homes Clean.

2. How to Keep Ourselves Well.

3. What to Do for a Headache.

4. What to Do for a Cold.

5. Treatment of Three Common Diseases Among Children.

6. Care of the Mother.

7. Care of the Baby.

We chose topics which we thought would meet the everyday needs of the women. They had to be presented in a way that would be simple and easy to grasp, for these women had very little education. Only two of the group could read. The rest did not know one Chinese character from another. Our equipment con­sisted of such things as would be found in an ordinary Chinese home. Perhaps a brief expla­nation of the topics will be of interest.

I. Importance of Cleanliness in the Home. Our first lesson was on the home. In this lesson the need of cleanliness, sunlight, and ventilation was stressed. The instructor im­pressed on the class that handsome furnishings are not needed in order to have good health, but that it is necessary to keep clean what we have. The importance of keeping food away from flies was also taken up. In order to prove that the fly can carry germs, a fly was caught and put under a magnifying glass so that the group might see it in all its ugliness. This object lesson proved very effective, for after class they were heard talking among them­selves and saying it was no wonder that food should be kept away from flies.

2. Care of the Body. In the second lesson we took up the care of the body, laying special emphasis on oral hygiene. A large chart pic­tured a sound set of teeth and also showed how teeth decay. This must have made a deep impression, for after this lesson, three other women asked to join the class.

3. Treatment for a Headache. The next subject was chosen for a special reason. When the Chinese have a headache, they pluck the skin on their foreheads until they have large, dark-red, disfiguring splotches that last for days. In this lesson the value of the hot foot bath was taught, and how it should be given was demonstrated. A few simple massage movements to the face and head were also taught. When the Chinese women first saw the mas­sage being given, they thought it was a joke ; but after having practiced on each other, they decided that there was something to it after all. In fact, they agreed that it certainly was an improved treatment over their old way of pluck­ing at the skin and that it should help a head­ache.

4. Treatment for a Cold. The fourth les­son covered the treatment for a common cold, and fomentations to the chest were demon­strated. This was a difficult lesson to teach. Special emphasis was placed on the fact that for the treatment to be effective, the applica­tions must be as hot as could be borne. The women looked upon this lesson with less ap­proval than the others. To them, giving the extreme heat and then cold applications at the end of the treatment was going a little too far. We explained how this treatment improves the circulation and carries away the poisons from the body, but from the dubious expression on their faces, we knew that this method of treat­ing a cold would not be tried out to any great extent.

5. Treatment of Children's Diseases. Perhaps you will wonder what was included in the next lesson, "Treatment of Three Common Diseases Among Children." We chose boils, fevers, and diarrhea, for these are very common among the Chinese children. Their usual treat­ment for boils consists of an application of crushed grass or leaves of any kind to the afflicted area. It was emphasized that boils indicate some underlying trouble and that a doctor should be consulted. For fever, we again urged seeing a doctor. A fever sponge was demonstrated, and the proper diet for a child with a temperature was discussed. For diar­rhea, prevention, which depends upon cleanli­ness, was stressed. The child's food was to be clean. Above all, flies were to be kept away from the child. When a child developed diar­rhea, no time should be wasted in getting him to a doctor. After having seen the doctor, they were to carry out his orders explicitly. This proved a very interesting lesson to the class.

6. Care of Mother and Baby. The next two lessons, which covered the care of the mother and the baby, were voted by everybody as being the most practical and most interesting. A demonstration of a delivery in the home was made, and those things were used which would be found in any Chinese home. The class was shown in detail how to sterilize the articles used and how to keep them sterile. The students were also shown how to scrub their hands be­fore helping with the delivery. In demon­strating the delivery, a large rag doll, which we made from Red Cross supplies, was used to represent the mother. The interest of the class was so great during this demonstration that they left their seats and surrounded us so that they might see better what we were doing.

I am truly glad that we had the privilege of conducting one class. When meeting with the class, as I looked about and saw the eager, ab­sorbed expressions on the faces of those women, a feeling of thankfulness overwhelmed me, and I was grateful for the small part I had in help­ing those earnest souls to understand better the laws of healthful living. Who knows but that lives may be saved as a result of those simple lessons?